


Let the left one in

by tall_wolf_of_tarth



Series: Tinder shenanigans [3]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, not another tinder fic again, this is very silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:53:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26974717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tall_wolf_of_tarth/pseuds/tall_wolf_of_tarth
Summary: Jaime watches a girl swiping left in Tinder. It's very funny until his own picture comes up. She swipes left.It keeps happening.
Relationships: Jaime Lannister/Brienne of Tarth
Series: Tinder shenanigans [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1584565
Comments: 252
Kudos: 482





	1. Swipe left

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote most of this when the first Covid lockdown started, and I tell you, what came out of my head was a pile of garbage. So I'm rewriting it little by little. This is very silly.

Let the left one in

Professor Aemon is late again and Jaime's phone is dead, so he has nothing better to do than sit in the great lecture hall and watch the girl sitting in front of him swiping left at Tinder. She is very efficient with it. An endless sea of mediocre men flashes on the screen and she hardly looks at any of them before swiping left again and again. The first man that makes her pause is a bearded redhead that lives at the same street than Jaime and Addam. Jaime hears a quiet “ _eww_ ” and sees her shuddering before she swiftly swipes next again. Jaime swallows a snicker -- Addam is going to love this, he thinks with a glee -- before he notices his own picture popping up on the screen. But before Jaime's heart has finished jumping the girl has swiped left.

What the fuck.

This girl has decided without even a pause that Jaime is not good enough for her.

It doesn't make any fucking sense. Girls just don't swipe left on Jaime Lannister. He knows he is ridiculously good-looking. He gets matches every day. She should have at least paused to look at him.

And it's a really good picture of him. Cersei took it at Lannisport harbour. Jaime is standing in front of his dad's yacht, shirt unbuttoned and the sun glistening in his golden hair. It has gotten Jaime plenty of Tinder dates before, but this girl with wide shoulders and limp hair didn't even look at him.

Before Jaime recovers, Professor Aemon totters to the lecture hall and the girl puts away her phone. Like she hadn't just blown off Jaime Lannister without even a shrug.

Who is she, anyway?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [This is Jaime’s profile pic!!](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/631971346116640768/oh-no-i-wrote-another-tinder-fic-and-this-is)


	2. That will show her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> That will show her.

That will show her

The first thing that Jaime does when he gets home is to charge his phone and update his Tinder profile pic. He chooses a new one carefully, digging around his saved photos until he picks the one where he is leaning against uncle Gerion's red convertible and wearing a tight grey t-shirt, looking fairly fit and fuckable. He then proceeds to check his Tinder notifications every ten minutes. He gets a few new matches, but unfortunately, none of them are wide-shouldered blondes from Prof Aemon's class.

Jaime spots _that_ girl coming out of the gym a few days later. She is all pink on her face, rushing down the stairs towards the bicycle rack. When Jaime notices that she is almost half a head taller than him, most of Jaime's blood relocates south for some reason. 

The girl passes him without any look or any care in the world. Again she doesn't acknowledge Jaime's existence at all, in Tinder or elsewhere.

***

“Wait,” asks Jaime from Addam at the gym. “If you swipe someone left, you _are_ going to see them again when they update their profile pic, aren't you?”

“What?” grunts Addam. “You mean in Tinder? Of course not.”

Jaime groans.

It takes him only a few minutes to create a new email address and make himself a new Tinder profile. He uses the photo with Valyrian again, slaps some info in his profile and proceeds with his workout.

“That will show her,” he thinks happily when washing his hair at the showers.

***

On Monday, he climbs up to the back row of the lecture hall and takes his seat behind her. The girl is already there, setting her notebook and pencil case on her table. When she takes out her phone, Jaime leans forward and bites his lip with anticipation.

The girl sighs, opens Tinder and starts to swipe.

A dude with a monkey (Mark, 20). She swipes left.

A sneering guy with red hair (Ron, 22). Left.

A bald guy who looks at least seventy (Humphrey, 29). She swipes left.

 _Fair enough,_ thinks Jaime. What a bunch of assholes.

A very fuckable guy in a tight grey t-shirt, leaning against a vintage convertible Valyrian. Jaime, 24.

She swipes left.

A brown-haired guy who looks completely average. Hyle, 22.

She stops.

She swipes right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I’m sorry to tell you but [uncle Gerions car ](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/631977237289304064)might need a new paint job.
> 
> Also, [this is Hyle Hunt's profile pic](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/632212510806835200/hyle-22-my-dick-works-tinder-is-full-of-creeps). What a nice-looking young man he is.


	3. Two cakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two cakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh my god, I'm overwhelmed with all the attention this little thing is getting?! I'm so glad you all liked it. I've read each and every comment and teared up on all the nice words. Thank you so much!

Two cakes

“She is in the melee team, I think,” says Addam. “I've seen her with that other girl before, and she's definitely in the melee team.” Jaime and Addam are sitting in the coffee shop near the jousting hall, looking at two tall girls who just came into the shop.

The girls are standing in the queue and are quietly talking with each other. Both of them are really tall and bulky, like all the girls in the melee team are, but that girl, the one who had swiped left on Jaime, is at least head taller than the other girl. She is also ripped.

“Dacey,” Addam nods. “Women's mixed weapons, heavy class.”

“Wait, which one?”

“Both.”

“They both called Daisy?”

“No, you idiot,” Addam frowns at him. “They are both in mixed weapons. The dark-haired one is Dacey.”

“What's the other one's name?” asks Jaime, but Addam doesn't pay attention to him at all and is staring at the girls.

“Brienne,” says the tall blond girl to the barista and steps to the side to wait on her drink.

“Brienne,” repeats Addam and turns back to Jaime. “I'm gonna ask her out.” He looks happy like he just has found a cake that needs to be eaten.

“But,” stares Jaime back at his best friend. “She's...”

Brienne, the Tinder girl, is ugly. She really is. She is bulky and wide, her features are odd and there are about a million freckles on her face and neck.

“Yeah,” continues Addam happily. “I know. Those legs, man.” Brienne and Daisy are leaving the cafe now, both holding some disgusting green drink. “A man could die happily between those thighs.” When the girls pass their table, Daisy steals a glance and smirks at them, but Brienne doesn't look at their way at all.

_What the hell is this_ , thinks Jaime and follows Brienne with his eyes. Her thighs are wide and strong like tree trunks.

“It's like two cakes, man,” sighs Addam and looks at the girls.

***

On Sunday morning Jaime is sitting in his and Addam's kitchen, drinking coffee. Dacey is sitting across the table, wearing Addam's clothes and babbling happily, while Addam is fussing around with the food he is frying for breakfast.

“I thought you were going to ask Brienne out?” Jaime had asked this morning when Addam and Dacey had tumbled out from Addam's room.

“I was, but then Dacey asked me out instead,” Addam just shrugged like it wasn't a big deal at all which girl he brought home. He comes over now to the table and starts spooning food to Dacey's plate. Dacey continues talking.

“We have such a good team this year, I'm so happy,” she gushes and stuffs a mushroom to her mouth.

“With Brienne Tarth we're going to kick ass in the nationals, I know it” she continues eating and talking.

Jaime lifts his plate and tries futilely to get Addam's attention, but Addam ignores him and keeps filling Dacey's plate.

“When Coach Tully nabbed Brienne from SEU we all had a party. Coach Tully said that she might pair me with Brienne, for Women's Double. I need to bulk up though.” Dacey sighs happily and eats a potato.

Addam, who has finally given Jaime one sausage and a measly half of potato, is petting now Dacey's bicep. “You're pretty bulked up already, you know. I saw you with a morningstar, you're strong.”

Dacey grins. Jaime feels slightly nauseous.

“Yeah, but I'm nothing like Brienne, she is the best. Oh my god, have you seen that youtube video? Brienne with the morningstar?”

Both boys are looking blankly at her. “The one where this asshole coach harasses her and she breaks his collarbone with a morningstar? It was trending on Twitter this summer. You have to go check it out.”

***

Jaime does check out that video, right after his breakfast. He also finds other videos about Brienne. Brienne Tarth, fighting in melee at local tryouts. Brienne Tarth, fighting against Loras Tyrell and winning. Brienne Tarth, who apparently was in SEU swim team, diving from 10 meters and performing near-perfect four and a half spins and earning near-perfect score for it. That video Jaime watches at least a dozen or so times before he grabs his phone to update his Tinder again.

This time he puts real thought into creating a new profile. Brienne is in the classical tourney team, so Jaime selects a photo of him sitting on his horse, Honor. He is wearing his jousting armour and he is holding Cersei's puppy, Joff.

Then he starts swiping left until he finds her profile. Brienne, 23. Her bio reads “The first light in the darkness”. Those are Tarth house words, Jaime knows. She is wearing her fighting gear at her profile pic and holding an expensive looking tourney sword but it's not the sword with its red gemstone that catches Jaime's eyes, but Brienne's own eyes that are bluest he has ever seen. _Photoshop_ , thinks Jaime smugly. He swipes right on her and goes back to his profile to edit his bio. “Hear us Roar,” he writes. No wench can resist a knight on a white horse holding a puppy, he thinks with satisfaction and opens up youtube again to watch Brienne diving.

Apparently, Brienne Tarth can. On Monday morning, when Professor Aemon is struggling through the door with his pile of tattered books, Brienne Tarth swipes swiftly left again on Jaime, Honor and the puppy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I read that Dacey can be pronounced as Daisy, I was mind blown.
> 
> [Oh, and here is Jaime, Honor and the puppy.](https://twitter.com/woIgang/status/1121841024756850690)  
> 
> 
> [And this is Brienne's profile pic, but imagine it in modern sports gear.](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/p__/images/8/84/Game-of-thrones-brienne.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20171204201542&path-prefix=protagonist)


	4. Your eyes are real

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your eyes are real

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I added the links to Jaime's Tinder pics at the endnotes of each chapter, make sure to check those out for previous chapters if you wish to see the photos I've based them on. They are not 1-on-1, mainly because Jaime is much younger than NCW in this fic, and also looks much more like BookJaime in my head.

Your eyes are real

Jaime doesn't go to that cafe in hope of seeing the Tinder wench again, he goes there because he needs to be caffeinated. If he happens to see Brienne, it's an added bonus. It only takes him a few days and quite many cups of sugary coffee drinks before he runs into Brienne again. Or rather, Brienne runs into him in front of the cafe.

It's all a blur when it happens, the impact of a large warm body hitting him and something dropping. Before he knows what he is doing, Jaime crouches down to pick it up -- a small sparkly purse -- and when he stands up he gets an eyeful of really really really long, naked and freckled legs. Brienne Tarth, champion diver and melee fighter, stands in front of Jaime wearing a blue dress that is too short for her and looks at Jaime with a mighty angry scowl.

Afterwards, when walking home Jaime thinks of the things that he could have said to her. Like “Hello” or “You're Dacey's friend, right?” or even “Here's your purse.” But what comes out of Jaime's mouth is this.

“Your eyes are real,” he blurts. Because Brienne's eyes are much bluer than in her Tinder pic. They are also very pretty, and she has adorable freckles on her wonky nose. _Why the fuck did I say that_ winces Jaime inwardly.

The girl looks at Jaime with her blue eyes, goes quite red on her face and cries out, “That's mine!” presumably meaning her purse still in Jaime's hand. When he hands it over, she hisses rather miffed “Thank you” through her teeth and stalks off to the direction of the bus stop, leaving Jaime contemplating on the great pleasure which a pair of fine eyes can bestow.

***

A few days later Jaime sees her fine eyes again at the gym. This time, there is no collision but Jaime does stumble a bit over his two feet when he spots Brienne working with free weights. She is wearing tight shorts and a sports top, and Jaime doesn't know where to put his own eyes. He turns around and finds the nearest machine to work off the sudden boost of excess energy that has somehow flushed into his body and tries not to look towards the free weights.

Because if there is something that Jaime knows about gym etiquette it's that you shouldn’t leer at the girls working out there, no matter how tight their shorts are or how small and perky their tits seem to be in their sports bras.

Jaime is not sure how long he has been running on the treadmill, but when he stops it and steps off he is sweating like a pig through his shirt. He pulls it off and is rubbing his face with it when he hears a small squeak. When Jaime lowers the shirt from his face, he sees Brienne standing in front of him, looking like a deer in the headlights.

“Excuse me,” she croaks, pushes past Jaime and runs off towards the women's dressing rooms.

_Well_ , thinks Jaime. She saw his abs. She _looked_ at his abs.

This, he can work with, he knows instantly. When Jaime gets home he creates a new Tinder profile again.

Gym, he thinks. Brienne stared at his abs at the gym, so he goes through all the gym pics he has, which there are plenty. For the profile photo, he chooses the one where he is laying on the gym floor and leaning on a tattered punching bag, mainly because he is not wearing any shirt but only soft-looking sweatpants.

Jaime, 24. _Hear me Roar_ , he writes this time because it's better to be more specific. He fills out all sorts of gym and exercise-related things to his hobbies, and uploads a couple of other gym photos to be sure to lure the Tinder wench in. Then he swipes through the pictures of women until he finds Brienne, 23. She really has pretty eyes, Jaime thinks. He swipes right.

On next Monday there is a small commotion outside the lecture room. Doors that should be unlocked are locked, and when they finally are unlocked the crowd fills the lecture room in a great big swarm. When Jaime gets to the back row, Brienne is already sitting at her usual place and like always pays no attention to anyone or anything behind her. When she digs out her phone, Jaime cranes out his neck to have a good look to her usual swiping.

This time, when his photo comes up she pauses. Jaime, 24. Then her neck goes red, she makes a muffled squeak and then she shuts down her phone in a great hurry and turns it face down to the table.

Brienne, 23, sits through the lecture about War of Five Kings with her neck flaming red, her back stiff as a ramrod and her hands clutching the edges of her table.

_She didn't swipe left_ , is all that Jaime can think all day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, finally, Brienne figured out that something odd is going on. Next chapter will be her POV! 
> 
> The gym profile pic is at the end of [this post](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/632058496308936704/the-latest-profile-pic).


	5. Swipe right if you're taller than me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brienne's POV in this hot mess.

Swipe right if you're taller than me

Tinder is full of creeps and weirdos, learns Brienne. Creeps like Hyle, 22, who first sends nice messages to Brienne, but after their awkward date at the cafe sends her a dick pic with a caption “my dick works u know.” And weirdos, like Jaime, 24, who seems to have at least seven different Tinder profiles.

Jaime is ridiculously good-looking both in and out of Tinder. He is Addam's best friend, and goes to the same Professor Targaryen's class than Brienne does so Brienne sees him around without actually being acquainted with him. Dacey told Brienne that Addam said that Jaime is an alright guy, but Brienne imagines that Dacey and Addam are not aware that Jaime is being weird at Tinder.

Brienne always swipes left when she spots one of Jaime's accounts, firstly because whatever game Jaime is playing Brienne wants no part of it and secondly there is no point of swiping right on the guys who are ridiculously good-looking and who are clearly trying to pull in girls much prettier than Brienne. Girls like Margaery Tyrell, Pia Waters or Sansa Stark who are ridiculously pretty and would match with ridiculously good-looking Jaime. Why Jaime, 24, needs seven or more Tinder accounts for dating, Brienne doesn't understand, because in real life all the girls look at Jaime with openly hungry eyes. Brienne tries not to look at Jaime in real life because she would probably drool on the spot.

Like that weekend when Margaery and her sorority had a “flower-party” at their back yard filled with all sorts of flower arrangement and flower-crown making workshops. Brienne was pulled into attending the stupid flower party by Dacey and other girls from their shared apartment and was making a crown out of daisies, poppies and cornflowers when Addam dropped by to bring some book that Dacey had forgotten to his place. Like always, trailing after Addam was Jaime who ignored the girls flipping their hair and sniffing the roses and drifted nearby Brienne to stare at her, struggling with her crown while Addam and Dacey had a quick snog by the rose bushes.

“So, you like flowers then?” Jaime, the weirdo with at least seven Tinder accounts, asked from Brienne. Brienne, who hates roses but doesn’t mind other kinds of flowers, twiddled with the cornflowers in her hands and gave a noncommittal shrug and felt relieved when Addam came back from rose bushes and dragged Jaime to jousting practice.

And next time when Brienne went to Tinder (which was later that night, because after realising that Jaime could see her using her phone at her class, Brienne only went to Tinder in the privacy of her own bedroom) she found that Jaime had made yet another Tinder account. This time he wasn't lounging on the floor of the gym like in that one pic she accidentally looked at the class but on some other floor, covered with flowers.

“I will bring you all the flowers,” his bio said.

That's when Brienne started to suspect that Jaime's Tinder accounts had something to do with _her_.

“Swipe right if you're taller than me,” one of his bios had said. The pic had been him, sitting in an empty bathtub and wearing a weirdly fashionable suit for a dude who mainly wears hoodies and jeans at the campus.

“I'm passionate about history,” his bio reads a few days later, accompanied by a picture of Jaime sitting on the ground (doesn't he know about chairs, Brienne wonders shortly), wearing a leather jerkin and pants. Brienne almost swipes right this time, just so she could point out to him that he should wear period-appropriate linen shirt under the jerkin, but chickens out before doing so.

In the end, his weirdly hot pics are the main reason why Brienne goes to Tinder - to see if Jaime has made yet another account and what kind of stupidly hot photo he has in his profile this time. It usually goes like this.

She spots Jaime somewhere on the campus or nearby shops, and later she spots his new account on Tinder. And often his account seems to relate to _her_. Like when Addam and Jaime had come over to watch Dacey and Brienne practice fighting with longswords, Jaime later had a new account with a picture of him holding a rather shitty looking tourney sword. He was wearing a black tank top, and Brienne felt extremely guilty when she saved the photo to her phone with the others.

He can't be doing it on purpose, Brienne tries to tell herself. It's just a coincidence. We just share some similar interests, she reasons. The multiple profiles are for pulling in some pretty girls. But, Brienne never sees him with any girls, pretty or not.

But what takes the cake is the photo where he is wearing a too-small shirt. It starts at the cafe queue when Brienne and Dacey are complaining about the sizing of women's clothes, the topic that Brienne finally can share with someone as Dacey is almost as tall and wide as her and never finds a shirt that fits her, before Brienne notices Jaime queueing little bit behind them. Later in the evening, when Brienne opens Tinder she already has a lurching feeling like something terrible is going to happen, and lo behold, Jaime, 24, has made another Tinder profile.

In this profile photo, he is wearing a shirt and jeans clearly too small for him. The pants have the top button undone and the shirt is pulled down only to his armpits. His bio is: “I might have overdone a little at the gym.”

_Right_ , thinks Brienne. _I'm going to find out what this hot weirdo wants from me_.

“Dacey!” she shouts.

“What?!” comes the answer from somewhere in the house.

“Did you say that the jousting team has a house party this weekend?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Jaime's profile pics. ](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/632132616393555968/oh-no-jaime-made-new-tinder-accounts-again)
> 
> Next chapter we are going to address Jaime's weird and borderline stalkerish behaviour.


	6. I should probably talk to her

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party. the weirdness is finally addressed.

I should probably talk to her

I should probably talk to her, Jaime thinks. His little Tinder routine clearly doesn't work, and there is no way of knowing if Brienne even sees his profiles. What he needs to do is to talk to her and ask her directly why she didn't match with him. Luckily the jousting team has a party this night at someone's backyard so that should be a good opportunity to talk to the Tinder wench.

It's Jaime's turn to make breakfast, so he pulls everything that is remotely edible out of the fridge, cuts some bread to go with it and sits down to the table.

“Hey Addam,” Jaime asks conversationally. “Do you know if Dacey will bring any friends with her tonight?”

Addam narrows his eyes at him. “You mean Brienne?”

 _Fuck_ , thinks Jaime. If Addam gets any suspicions that Jaime is trying to... Whatever it is that Jaime is trying to do, Addam will start to meddle.

To throw Addam off the scent, Jaime stuffs a slice of bread into his mouth and talks while chewing it.

“Who's Brienne?”

Addam snorts and rolls his eyes for some reason. He then starts to build an enormous sandwich to his plate, with toppings of ham, cheese, pickles, cold-smoked trout, tomatoes, pickled onions and cream cheese. Then he starts eating it with a fork and knife like it's a stake and gives Jaime a fond look.

“Yeah, Dacey will bring her friend, don't worry.”

***

For some odd reason, the party is on Sunday, which is inconvenient, as the parties of jousting team hosts are usually very long and full of alcohol.

Jaime frets around the edges of the party, looking towards the gate through which a steady stream of guests is trickling to the back yard.

While waiting, he creates another Tinder profile and goes to find Brienne's to swipe right on her again. She still has the same photo on her profile, with her insanely blue eyes and adorable freckles on her nose.

Jaime is still staring at his phone when Addam comes and grabs his arm.

“Come on,” he commands Jaime. “I'll introduce you to _Dacey's friend_.” Addam doesn't do air quotes with his fingers, but the emphasis is there.

They meet Brienne and Dacey in the middle of the party. Brienne is wearing that same blue dress that she wore when she ran into Jaime outside the cafe and she is clutching the sparkly purse like she doesn't know what to do with it. She is wearing a battered pair of converse on her feet and her dress is still too short to her.

Addam gives a quick kiss to Dacey and then gets to business.

“Alright,” he announces. “Brienne, this dumbass is Jaime Lannister. I believe you've seen him before.”

Brienne stares at Jaime, eyebrows knitted together. “Yes,” she says hesitantly. “I've seen him. A lot.”

He just needs to charm her, Jaime decides. He'll flirt a little, get her relaxed, and then ask her about what kind of men she wants to date. Being flirty and charming is Jaime's bread and butter.

Addam pokes Jaime with his elbow. “Say hello to Brienne, Jaime.”

“Hello,” Jaime purrs and puts on his best megawatt smile. “I've seen you at Professor Targaryen's class.” Brienne immediately looks away from him. Jaime feels his smile falter a little but then Dacey kicks Brienne's shin.

“Ow! Well, yes, hello Jaime,” Brienne nods and stares at her clutch.

“Our work here is done,” Dacey announces and both her and Addam disappear to the crowd. Jaime and Brienne are left to stand in the middle of the yard. Brienne has two high pink spots at her cheeks. She is adorably awkward in her too-short dress.

“I like your dress,” Jaime tries to start the conversation. “The colour brings out your eyes.”

Brienne lifts her eyes from the ground and looks at Jaime like he has two heads.

“Umm.” she starts. “Ah,” she starts again. “Dacey made me buy it,” she says very quickly. “And my bra...”

Whatever Brienne was going to say Jaime will never know because suddenly, Tormund from the men's melee team appears next to them.

“Eeeyy,” he interrupts Brienne with a grin. “You're that big gal from the women's team, eh?”

Brienne looks horrified, and Jaime wants to strangle the ginger idiot.

“I saw ye on Tinder, but ye didn't swipe right on me. Why's that?” Jaime is pretty sure that you should not ask someone why they didn't swipe right on them at Tinder.

Brienne seems to agree with him because she looks from Tormund to Jaime and back, her mouth slightly open. She looks mighty angry. She then stretches herself to her full height. Jaime swallows.

“I don't know what game you two are playing, but I want nothing to do with it,” Brienne says with a very haughty voice. She then turns around and stalks away from them.

“Isn't she great?” the ginger idiot grins.

“Do you even know her name?” Jaime scoffs and goes to find something to drink.

***

It's very weird how Brienne, who is very tall and wide can hide so well in a small backyard. Well, most of the jousters and melee fighters who are at the party are big fellows and girls but Brienne is still taller than anyone else. Jaime does manage to spot her blonde head above the others, but whenever he reaches the spot where she was, she has disappeared again. It takes Jaime at least an hour before he manages to find her.

“Hey, Brienne,” he greets her by the drinks table.

“Hello, Jaime-twenty-four,” Brienne nods and frowns at her drink. The drinks at the jousting team's party are not known for their subtlety or low alcohol content and Brienne seems to be less stiff than before.

It's his chance now Jaime understands, to find out... Whatever it is that he wants to find out from Brienne.

“So, what kind of...” Jaime starts to ask but Brienne interrupts him.

“Why do you have so many Tinder accounts?”

“Oh,” Jaime feels slightly pleased. “You've noticed them.” She rolls her eyes.

“They are kind of hard to miss, Jaime. ”

“It's odd that we haven't matched though. I always swipe right on you.”

Brienne narrows her eyes.

“Right,” she finishes her cup and sets it to the table. “Is there some sort of bet going on? Are you catfishing me?”

“What?” Jaime doesn't understand.

“All those accounts in Tinder, did you set those up for me?”

“Umm,” suddenly Jaime understands how this might look.

“I fucking knew it,” Brienne is properly angry now.

“There is no bet,” Jaime tries to explain but she doesn't seem to listen.

“I don't fucking care. It's catfishing.”

Now Jaime is horrified. “It's not catfishing.”

“You're fishing out things about me in real life and using them to get my attention online. I'm pretty sure it's catfishing. And even if it's not, it's weird as hell and makes me uncomfortable.”

Putting it like that, it does sound rather bad.

Brienne's chin is wobbling a little. “Leave me alone, you weirdo,” she tells Jaime with finality and leaves.

***

On Monday morning, Brienne is not sitting in her usual place. She trails into the lecture hall right after Professor Targaryen and slinks to the table at the front row without looking at his direction at all. Jaime sighs and drinks the green smoothie he brought her. It does wonders to his hangover, but not to his mood.

It can't be catfishing if he used his own name and face on the accounts, can it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jaime googles: is it catfishing if you are using your own name and photo?
> 
> And sorry, no weirdly hot tinder photos of Jaime this time, but have [a gifset of Jaime eating breakfast with Addam](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/626593899846270976/dunderklumpen-nikolaj-coster-waldau-in-slaget-p%C3%A5).  
> Also here is [Hyle Hunt's Tinder pic](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/632212510806835200/hyle-22-my-dick-works-tinder-is-full-of-creeps). Look how nice and friendly he looks! You'd swipe right on him too!  
> I'm not going to put in Tormund's Tinder pic because we don't need that sort of negativity in our lives.


	7. Lannisters don't apologise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lannisters don't apologise. Until they do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for this insane amount of comments you all have left on the fic! I've read each and every one of them, this fandom is truly a gift.

When Jaime tells Addam about his Tinder accounts and Brienne's reactions to them, Addam laughs so much he falls off his chair. Then he promptly sits back on it and frowns.

“You're going to have to apologise.”

Jaime gets up and starts loading the coffee machine. Lannisters don't apologise, he wants to say but then he remembers Mrs Marbrand telling him that if Lannisters want to come over to Marbrands to play swords again they need to learn to apologise for throwing Addam's sword to the pond.

“Crone's cunt, it's because you've never been rejected, isn't it? You see one girl who doesn't immediately fall into your lap and you've got no idea what to do.”

“I've been rejected before,” Jaime grumbles and pokes at the coffee grounds at the countertop.

“Jaime,” he hears Addam saying, his voice both amused and slightly frustrated. “You could have just, you know, talked to her. In real life.”

“I did try that yesterday. But she got angry with me.”

But that was after he had been a total dumbass on Tinder.

“What were you going to do if Brienne had swiped right?”

The question takes Jaime by surprise. If she had swiped right, he would have won the game, he thinks. But then what? He sits down to the table and puts his head to his hands.

“You have less emotional intelligence than a potato,” Addam sighs. “Especially about your own feelings.”

Jaime likes to stuff his feelings where they are not visible and not to examine them very closely, which is not a healthy habit according to his therapist. He did those Tinder accounts because he wanted Brienne's attention. Maybe first he wanted her attention because she rejected him, but pretty soon he wanted her to like him.

Because he likes Brienne. He likes how she is both shy and awkward in public but confident and strong at the training yards. Last night, Jaime talked to her maybe only two minutes before the ginger idiot ruined it, but Jaime liked how adorable Brienne was. He wants to see if he can make her open up a little and if he can make her laugh. He also wants to kiss her and see if he can make her sigh.

“You do realise that you can't go and ask her out now, right? Leave her be.”

“I know,” Jaime moans. He has really fucked this up.

Addam pats his back and pours out the coffee.

***

“Addam said that he is just a dumbass. Who likes you a lot.”

“You're joking, right?” Brienne looks at her friend, but Dacey doesn't seem to be joking.

“I think it's true,” Dacey shrugs. “When you were sparring with Sandor, he sat there looking at you with this dumb look on his face. Total heart eyes.”

Brienne feels her face going hot again. It can’t be true.

“And Jaime wasn't staring at _Sandor's_ arse, I tell you,” Dacey laughs. “Anyways, Addam says that he wants to apologise.”

***

Brienne had especially told Jaime to leave her alone, so Jaime can't exactly go and seek her out for apologising. Instead, he tries to avoid her. He goes to the gym in the mornings and stays away from the cafe she likes.

He sees her once by the jousting field when he is walking Honor back to the stables but he doesn't stop her, just nods when she passes. There will be a tourney at the weekend, and Jaime knows that jousting and melee teams share the bus there, and it will be awkward if he doesn't apologise before that, but Jaime doesn't know how to approach Brienne.

Most of the time Jaime just hides in the library and sulks. He gets a couple of essays done way before the deadline which is a new experience for him but he suspects that the overall tone of his essays might be rather gloomy.

Right now he is sitting in the big study hall at the middle of the library, by the indoor fountain that has this great ugly bronze trout spitting water out of its mouth. The fountain is an eyesore, but the sound of the water splashing to the marble calms Jaime. He is frowning at lecture notes about War of the Five Kings that Ilyn has lent him -- because it's just illegible scrawls with dicks drawn on the margins -- when someone stops next to him. When he looks up from the notes, it's Brienne, clutching the strap of her backpack.

“Addam said that you want to talk with me?”

Jaime hides away Ilyn's notes. He draws his hand through his hair. Why is apologising always so hard?

“Look, I'm sorry about the stupid shit in Tinder,” he manages to say. “I didn't' mean to make you uncomfortable and I'm sorry that I upset you.”

When he lifts his eyes again Brienne is looking at him with her soft blue eyes for a while but then she nods.

“Alright,” she says, and then sits down to the chair next to him.

“So, why do you have all these weird photos of yourself?”

Jaime turns and looks at her. She doesn't look at him, but at least she hasn't left.

“My twin sister is an influencer. She took them for her Instagram.”

Brienne seems interested, so Jaime tells her about the photoshoots that Cersei has made him do and about even crazier ones that she has done herself.

“She likes to organise these elaborate things, with elephants and shit.”

“She seems to be a pretty good photographer.”

“Oh, Cersei has minions for that. She doesn't do any actual work herself except posing and posting.”

“My brother is an Instagrammer too,” Brienne surprises Jaime. “He blogs mainly about camping and diving. He has an insane amount of followers. Like thousands.”

That sounds much more wholesome than Cersei's weird queen of Westeros aesthetic with her millions of followers and online rivalry with other influencers.

Brienne stands up to leave soon after that. Jaime really wants to ask for her phone number, but perhaps it's still too early to push his luck.

“I really am sorry about it all,” he stands up as well and looks at her. “I didn't think it through. I wasn't doing it to hurt you or anything.”

Brienne blushes again.

“Addam said that you have less emotional intelligence than a potato,” she says with a wry smile.

“Addam once ate alive snail so I wouldn't put a lot into what he says,” Jaime scoffs.

Brienne looks like she is going to smile but then shudders.

“Gods, schoolboys are so gross.”

“Who said it was in school? It was last month when we were camping together.”

Brienne laughs out loud for that. She tries not to at first, but then the laughter escapes from her in a great big boom. It echoes around the fountain and the courtyard. She then immediately hides her face behind her hands.

And suddenly Jaime can't stop smiling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I imagine Mrs Marbrand had to do a lot of parenting for poor motherless Jaime.  
> Also, Cersei the Instagram Influencer used to have Melara as her photographer, but when Melara took some seriously hot photos of Jaime, Cersei got so jealous that she pushed Melara to the pool and Jaime had to fish her out. Jaime stopped posing for Cersei’s Insta when the photos started to veer from “cute twins dressed alike” to “creepy twincest”.
> 
> [Oh, and here is a helpful picture of what Jaime with Honor might look like. ](https://tall-wolf-of-tarth.tumblr.com/post/632324213479456768/chapter-7-posted-now)


	8. Let the right one in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath.

Jaime sighs, closes his eyes and tries to fall asleep but the pain on his wrist and hand is keeping him awake. The noise at the bus has died down as everyone is exhausted and battered after the tourney. It was a good tourney for the team, but fairly terrible for Jaime. His hand was already injured before the joust even started and then he broke his wrist when he was unmounted by that Dornishman. And then Coach Tully had yelled at him and threatened to hang him, which was rather overkill, thinks Jaime.

He sits by himself in a dark bus, as Addam went to “say hi to Dacey” half an hour ago and hasn't come back yet. Jaime's phone beeps in his pocket, so he fishes it out awkwardly with his left hand.

“You have made 1 new match in Tinder!” the notification says. Jaime hasn't been in Tinder for weeks, not since Brienne yelled at him at the party. Besides, he hasn't swiped right on any girls for months now, he is pretty sure, so the notification has to be a mistake. He opens the app expecting nothing but instead, Brienne's face comes up on the screen.

“You have matched with Brienne, 23. Check out her profile and send her a message.” reads on the screen. Jaime feels his face going warm. His phone beeps again.

“Brienne, 23, has sent you a message.” Jaime looks back where he thinks Brienne is sitting, but he can't see anyone in the darkness.

“I like your profile photo,” the message reads when he opens it.

It's the profile he created when he waited for her at the party. The profile pic is just a selfie he took on the spot, in his Blackfish T-shirt. He is looking at the camera, his hair a little askew.

“Come over,” he types and presses send but hears the notification sound right behind him. Brienne appears at the aisle and sits to the empty seat next to Jaime.

“Hi,” she says quietly. There is a big bruise on her cheek and her lip is split. Addam said that Brienne had made a good dent on the Harrenhal team before she was taken down.

“Hey,” Jaime can't stop smiling. “Are Addam and Dacey making out again?”

“No,” Brienne shakes her head. She looks nervous. “They're napping. How's your hand?”

“Just a hairline fracture on my wrist. I'll be right as rain in a few weeks.”

“It was stupid of you. To punch him.”

“He was out of line,” Jaime shrugs.

“I got back at him later. They took him away from the field on a stretcher.”

Timeon had appeared at EMO soon after Jaime, also clutching his arm. Knowing that it was Brienne who took him down, gives Jaime a warm fuzzy feeling at the bottom of his stomach. It almost makes up to the disappointment about missing out the melee and seeing Brienne fight.

“Addam said that you took seven of them down.”

“It was a good fight,” she says and touches the bruise at the side of her face self-consciously and then her tongue darts out of her mouth to lick her split lip.

“Who gave this to you?” Jaime puts his hand on her bruised cheek. When she doesn't pull back, he gently touches her swollen lip with his thumb.

“Sandor, I think. It was an errant punch.”

She blushes again. Jaime’s thumb still traces her lips.

“I can't believe he got to kiss you before I did.”

She huffs a little at his teasing but when she understands her eyes go very wide.

So he kisses her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's it for this little story! Thank you all for reading, kudoing, commenting and supporting this fic. This is my third Jaime x Brienne Tinder fic, and hopefully, I have now finished that particular theme. 
> 
> I don't have a pic to go with this chapter, but if you have suggestions, please let me know in the comments!


End file.
